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From | Benjamin Lukoff <blukoff@alvord.com> |
Subject | Re: Fox News Article |
Date | Wed, 19 Jul 2006 09:28:13 -0700 (PDT) |
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why doesn't he, or at least link to Amazon?
On Wed, 19 Jul 2006, Christopher Kouzes wrote:
> Last week, the new Johnny Cash CD entered the charts at #1 while only
> selling 88,000 copies. That's about as sad as sad gets. The example of
> Butch Walker's retail ignored/seemingly successful MySpace page is
> interesting. I'm wondering how many "units" he would have sold if he had
> a "buy now" button on his page.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: audities-owner@smoe.org [mailto:audities-owner@smoe.org] On Behalf
> Of RStupay@levybooks.com
> Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 10:59 AM
> To: audities@smoe.org
> Subject: Fox News Article
>
> Sorry if this was posted before:
>
>
> Record Biz Crisis: Top 20 Misses 750K
> The top 20 pop albums sold fewer than a total of 750,000 CDs last week.
> You read that correctly. The actual total was 738,211. The number
> includes
> 220,000 copies of a greatest hits singles collection from all the
> labels,
> "Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 22." Without "Now 22," regular
> releases came in around 500,000 copies.
> This is a crisis that no one acknowledges in the record business. But
> consider that recently dismissed Sony execs Donnie Ienner and Michelle
> Anthony were making $2 million a year, and that their income is typical
> of
> upper echelon management in any record company. If the half million CD
> sold at full price - $15 - then they didn't even pay for a small part of
>
> one salary.
> Consider also the execs at radio conglomerates, who have tightened
> playlists so that few new records are played unless - as identified by
> New
> York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's findings - stations receive
> free trips, gadgets and other gifts as inducements. You might wonder how
>
> any of the companies on either side can afford to stay in business.
> Consider that last Tuesday, "Now 22" was not the only new release.
> Sony/Epic issued a new CD by writer-producer Butch Walker, a performer
> whom this column has extolled over and over. Not only did no one from
> the
> company bother to send it here, this reporter only learned about it by
> accident - yesterday.
> Walker, who should have a following from his extensive touring - he
> produces and opens for Avril Lavigne. But he's been ignored by his label
>
> and radio. What's he supposed to do? The CD sold fewer than 15,535
> copies
> - the minimum it would have taken to hit the top 50.
> And here's an amazing statistic: four songs from the new album have been
>
> played a total of 200,000 times on Walker's MySpace page. I doubt this
> is
> the work of one person who clicked the links that many times. Some group
>
> of people is interested in Butch Walker. They're just not a group that
> his
> label or radio stations are interested in, apparently.
> If they were, there would be more of an investment in Walker's career -
> and other countless talented artists like him - by the record companies.
>
> Instead, the record stores are empty, and customers are drifting toward
> other entertainment.
> There isn't a lot to look forward to right away in terms of new
> releases:
> Rapper DMX has a new album on Aug. 1, but his last one was three years
> ago. Rocker Tom Petty's waited four years to put his new CD, and the
> last
> one wasn't exactly a bestseller with fewer than 350,000 copies sold.
> Yesterday's crop of new releases has only one promising title, by Los
> Lonely Boys, whose previous album sold 2 million copies. All eyes will
> be
> on them to see if they can beat their last first week sales record:
> 4,000
> copies. That shouldn't be too hard. Or Music, a satellite label from
> Epic,
> sticks with their artists the way most labels do not.
>
>
>
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